No clue so far about two missing Indian clerics: Pakistan

Lahore: Pakistan today said it has no clue so far about the two Indian clerics, including the 80-year-old head priest of New Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah, who went missing in the country.

“No clue to the missing Indian priests has been found so far. However, we are pro-actively pursuing this case,” Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria told PTI.

“We have asked all departments concerned to look into the matter,” he said, adding the Foreign Office yesterday received the request of the Indian government to trace the two missing clerics.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today said the Indian government has taken up the matter with Pakistan.

“We have taken up this matter with Government of Pakistan and requested them for an update on both the Indian nationals in Pakistan. Both are missing after they landed in Karachi airport,” Swaraj tweeted.

Syed Asif Nizami and his nephew Nazim Nizami went missing after they landed at Karachi airport. Syed Asif Nizami is the head priest of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia Dargah.

The two had gone to visit the famous Daata Darbar shrine in Lahore and were to catch a flight to Karachi on Wednesday.

The clerics had gone to Karachi to meet their relatives on March 8 before travelling to Lahore to visit the shrine.

A Federal Investigation Agency official at the Lahore airport told PTI that they have no idea about the missing of the two clerics from the airport premises.

“It is not clear whether they have gone with someone on their own or there is some other matter,” he said.

A senior Punjab police officer also expressed his department’s ignorance about this matter saying: “Neither we have received any application about the missing Indian priests nor the federal government has asked us to look into this matter”.

Exchanges between clerics of the Nizamuddin Dargah and the Daata Darbar are part of a regular tradition.